Sharpham Trust receives National Lottery support to help address the impact of Covid-19 on heritage

28th July, 2020

by Julian | 4 Min Read

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The Sharpham Trust has received £50,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to help the charity weather the current Covid-19 crisis.

Since the pandemic and lockdown began, The Trust has lost almost 50% of this year’s income after having to close for four months due to the virus.

The charity had to stop its programme of mindfulness retreats, nature events and volunteering schemes, postpone weddings and venue hires of Sharpham House, it had to limit mourners at its natural burial ground Sharpham Meadow and furlough its staff.

Post-lockdown, The Trust has had to halve the numbers allowed on retreat and introduce a range of measures including additional cleaning and use of PPE in order to make its Sharpham House, Woodland retreat & Barn venues Covid-secure.

“This grant is great news,” said Julian Carnell, Trust Director. “Thanks to the National Lottery, we’ve been given help with some of the extra costs of reopening under the current government guidelines.

“We have just run our first retreat since March and the feedback from participants was excellent. Many were very grateful for the opportunity to return to Sharpham and benefit from time on retreat.

“We have so far managed to retain all our staff and we hope we can avoid any redundancies,” he added. “We’re grateful that The National Lottery Heritage Fund is supporting us at this crucial time.”

The funding, made possible by National Lottery players, was awarded through The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Heritage Emergency Fund. £50million has been made available to provide emergency funding for those most in need across the heritage sector. The UK-wide fund will address both immediate emergency actions and help organisations to start thinking about recovery.

Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Heritage has an essential role to play in making communities better places to live, supporting economic regeneration and benefiting our personal wellbeing. All of these things are going to be even more important as we emerge from this current crisis.

“Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players we are pleased to be able to lend our support to organisations such as The Sharpham Trust during this uncertain time.”

Like The Sharpham Trust, other charities and organisations across the UK that have been affected by the unprecedented impact of the coronavirus outbreak are being given access to a comprehensive package of support of up to £600 million of repurposed money from The National Lottery. This money is supporting some of the most vulnerable people in our communities and span the arts, community, charity, heritage, education, environment and sports sectors.

Thanks to National Lottery players, £30 million is raised every week for good causes, including heritage of local and national importance. By playing The National Lottery, people up and down the country are making an amazing contribution to the nationwide-response to combatting the impact of COVID-19 on local communities across the UK.

About The National Lottery Heritage Fund

To find out more about the National Lottery Good Causes, visit: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/coronavirus-pandemic-response

Using money raised by the National Lottery, we inspire, lead and resource the UK’s heritage to create positive change for people and communities, now and in the future.

www.heritagefund.org.uk #NationalLotteryHeritageFund

Extra advice and support and longer-term skills and capacity building initiatives has been made available for the heritage sector. Read more about The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s response to the Covid-19 emergency.

About the National Lottery

Since The National Lottery’s first draw took place on 19 November 1994, more than £40 billion has been raised for good causes in the areas of arts, sport, heritage and community.
National Lottery players contribute around £30 million to good causes every week.
The National Lottery has made more than 5,500 millionaires but its primary purpose is giving to good causes - over 565,000 individual grants have been awarded across the UK, that’s the equivalent of 200 life-changing projects in every UK postcode district.